Recently someone I taught 6 years ago asked me if I was still teaching. I was wondering who he was. Fortunately, I had taken some pictures of him back then.

So there his name was on a folder. OK, I remember him now. I must have taught him for a super brief time. If I remember correctly, we didn’t even get to finish more than 3 techniques! I might have briefly explained how to use the techniques and some push hands.

He said he had been taking part in push hands competitions overseas. Ah, so he must have learned quite well from another teacher, at least to the stage of having enough confidence to go out and test his skill. He even started learning Chen style a year ago so that’s another feather in his cap. So I wondered why he was asking me since his learning seems to be in good hands.

He showed me a clip of him competing against someone a head taller and nearly double his weight. Yikes! From what I can see his opponent looks more experience seeing that all the attacks were coming from his opponent’s side. His opponent had the leg up in terms of timing, strength handling, response and techniques. That they were engaged in fixed position push hands while standing on top of posts certainly did not make things easier.

He observed that Mongolian wrestlers had the edge when it came to push hands competition. I don’t know about this but if I try to wrestle a wrestler I certainly would lose too.

One thing we learned in traditional martial arts is that you never know who you are up against. If you get into a fight in the street you don’t have the time to feel the opponent, no time to think about what you want to do. You only have time to react. So all the training is geared towards the unknown opponent, whatever style or no style he may be from.

There is one thing we know for sure and that is you know yourself. If you don’t, then you need to train harder. There is a koryu channel that I have been following. Occasionally the student would bring the master a weapon that the master has never used or seen, and asked how the master would use it. With a look and a quick feel of the weapon the master can present ideas of how to use the unknown weapon against the katana. Then he would consider how to use their swordsmanship against this unknown weapon

I don’t know what the student is expecting from me but too bad for him I no longer teach. Anyway, he didn’t tell me what he wanted and I didn’t ask. I took the opportunity to exercise my thinking and analysis skills.

If the student had asked about what I think of his performance in that clip I would recommend him to :-

a) Work on developing a good, flexible structure that is adaptable to redirecting and absorbing the opponent’s strength in a split second

b) Work on positioning. A lot of times a good position can win half the battle

c) Train the reflexes. Don’t just react but react in accordance to a trained series of responses

d) Understand the role of strategy in push hands especially how you respond to elicit the feedback that you need to win. Study Game Theory to know more

e) Work on techniques for different range of resistance

f) Develop a limited number of techniques that can respond to a wide number of attacks, counters and counterattack. Learn how to change the sequence of techniques on the fly through the use of insertion and replacement

g) Once you have the above, go on a tour of self-discovery by testing your developed skills against people of all sizes and different skill levels you meet for the first time. Then go back, study your failures, work on the needed improvements and do it all over again. When you are ready then go and enter a competition for the fun of it